Winter Film Series Freedom Public Library

Winter Film Series Freedom Public Library 38 Old Portland Road—(603) 539-5176 Sunday Afternoons at 4:00 FREE January 11, 2015 IDA (Poland, 2013) This small, black and white film set in the Poland of the early 1960s, opens as an 18-year old novice, raised in a convent, prepares to take her vows. Knowing no life other than the one she has experienced with the nuns, she is ordered by her mother superior to travel to Lodz to meet an aunt, hitherto unknown to her. Her aunt, a hard-drinking, contemptuous woman of the Communist elite reveals that Ida is in fact Jewish and that her parents were killed in the war. The two women begin an odyssey through the bleak countryside during which Ida (pronounced Ee-da) slowly discovers the truth about her past, and we glimpse some of the brutal crimes of Stalinism and of the Holocaust. Reviewers are ecstatic about the performances of Agata Trzebuchowska as the novice nun, of Agata Kulezka as her cynical aunt, and of the stunning and painterly photography.

January 25, 2015 THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY (US, 2014) The Kadam family, fleeing persecution in their native India, finds by accident a place to establish a traditional Indian restaurant in a small village in the South of France. Although the perfect space is available, it just happens to be located directly across the street from a Michelin- starred French restaurant operated by the imperious Madame Mallory played by Helen Mirren, looking better than ever. Madame won’t stand for this competition of course, and in attempting to ruin their business, she becomes the implacable enemy of the Kadams. What follows is a glossy concoction of drama, comedy, beautiful people, romance and cuisine in the shimmering light of the French countryside, with a few serious subplots in the stew. Oprah Winfrey, a producer of the film, says “Can I say it’s delicious?”

February 8, 2015 MY OLD LADY (UK, 2014) Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline, and Kristen Scott-Thomas in Paris—one can’t go wrong with these actors and this setting. Kline plays Mathias, a down- and-out New Yorker traveling to Paris to inherit a gorgeous apartment left to him by his estranged father. Much to his dismay, he finds it’s already occupied by a 92 year old woman (Smith), who is entitled under a contract made previously, to live there until she dies. Not only that, Mathias must pay her rent! Scott-Thomas, playing Smith’s daughter, lives with her mother and has a few issues of her own. She and Mathias clash, Smith reveals her past, and plots to sell the place are arranged and thwarted. Israel Horvitz wrote the screenplay, based on his stage play, as well as the razor-sharp dialog between Kline and Smith.

Come for the Movie. Stay for Supper! Films show at 4:00 and popcorn is served. Following each movie, we offer a simple soup and bread supper for anyone who would like to stay for a meal and a chance to talk about the film. The library has a signup sheet for volunteers to bring soup or bread. Winter Film Series Freedom Public Library 38 Old Portland Road—(603) 539-5176 Sunday Afternoons at 4:00 FREE

February 22, 2015 ILO ILO ( Singapore, 2014) A first feature film by Anthony Chen takes a perceptive look at the life of a middle class family in Singapore during the recession of 1997 in which a family of three with a baby on the way faces financial uncertainty. Teck and his wife, Hwee Leng, toil hard and long, and their troubles are compounded by the intransigence of their 10 year old son, whose problems in school drive them to their wits end. Just as bad economic news breaks, the couple hires Teresa, a Filipino housekeeper with financial insecurities of her own. This unsentimental film describes the evolving relationships, especially between Teresa and the boy, Jiale. We begin to empathize with each character, to realize how alike we all are, and to understand how events beyond our control can affect us all.

March 8, 2015 THE LUNCHBOX (India, 2014) This romantic fable is reminiscent of the Hollywood dramas of the past though it’s set in the teeming urban Mumbai of today where Ila, a neglected housewife and Mr. Fernandes, a widowed bureaucrat, struggle through their lonely days. Ila prepares a daily lunch for her uninterested husband which is delivered via a complicated network of couriers to his workplace. An unexpected glitch in this system results in the delivery of the lunches to the desk of Mr. Fernandes. His thank-you note to her begins a correspondence that grows into an exchange of pleasantries, then of confidences. The attractive Irrfan Khan (seen in The Life of Pi) and Nimrat Kaur, as Ila, play the graceful and melancholy pair who derive hope from their notes to each other.

March 22, 2015 BIRDMAN (US, 2014) Birdman, the latest film by Mexican director Alejandro Innaratu, stars Michael Keaton, as Riggan Thomson, a has-been actor whose claim to fame was in films as a superhero, Birdman. Facing bankruptcy and attempting to revive his faded career, Riggan is giving everything he has left to directing and starring in a play, his adaptation of a Raymond Carver story. Zach Galifianakis is cast as Riggan's producer; other assorted cast members are the wonderful Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts doing everything possible in their eccentric ways to sabotage his efforts. A kind of magical realism is present in the scenes where the tortured Riggan argues with himself in the voice of Birdman; when he flies through the city, the visual effects are astonishing. Splendid acting, brilliant photography, and an unusual sound track make this black comedy a masterpiece.